SEO for architects · Canada and the USA
SEO means getting your firm to show up when people search. We get architecture firms to the top of Google, Google Maps and AI answers for the projects they want: custom homes, renovations, commercial builds. A referral sends a client to Google to check you out. A search with no referral sends them straight to whoever ranks.
30 minutes on Google Meet. For firms doing $20k a month or more.
Proof from a design firm we rank · Seattle
Google search: “luxury landscape design”
Angkorscape, a design and build firm
SEO for architects, explained
SEO for architects is the work that gets an architecture firm to show up when people nearby search for an architect, a firm, or the project they have in mind: a custom home, an addition, a renovation, a commercial building. SEO stands for search engine optimization: improving your Google Maps listing, your website and your firm’s name around the web so Google, and the AI tools clients now ask, pick you first. You don’t pay per click for any of it. It is how new clients find you on the searches they already make.
The gallery page
“Ridge House”
Six photos and a name. Google can’t tell what it is, so it only shows up when someone types the name.
The project page
A modern hillside home in [town], designed for a sloped lot
Google picks the firms it shows on three things: how relevant your listing and pages are to the search, how close you are to the person searching, and how well known and trusted your firm is online. For an architect that means five pieces of work, each set out below: your Maps listing, a page for each kind of project, project pages Google can read, your firm and principal names, and the AI answers.
Referrals stay your best source of work. SEO adds to them in two ways. First, a referred client almost always looks you up before they get in touch, so your name search and your project pages decide whether the referral turns into a meeting. Second, it puts you in front of the people who don’t know anyone to ask and type the project into Google instead.
In the US, “architect near me” is searched about 18,100 times a month and “architecture firms near me” about 9,900 (Google Ads, October 2026). Those are people choosing a firm right now, without a referral.
The listings themselves are free. Nobody pays Google to rank on the Maps list or in the normal results, and nobody pays per click there. What costs money is the work that gets you there: the pages, the listing, the links and the reviews. You can do that yourself, hire someone, or hire an agency.
Paid ads are the other route. They put you at the very top for as long as you keep paying, and every click costs you. In the US a click on an ad for “commercial architect” costs about $27.75 (Google Ads, October 2026). One way is to run both: ads to cover the gap while the rankings climb, then less ad spend once the free spots are yours.
The method is the same; the client is not. An architecture client spends a large sum on one decision and takes weeks or months to make it. They read project pages closely, compare firms, look up the principal, and come back several times. So the pages have to carry real projects and plain answers about fees, approvals and timelines, not just photos.
Architects also sell to two kinds of client: homeowners who search by project and town, and businesses or developers who search by building type and compare firms more formally. We plan the pages around both, with the same local SEO we do for any business that serves people nearby, plus SEO for the normal Google results for searches that reach beyond your town.
Residential and custom home architects, renovation and addition specialists, heritage and restoration practices, commercial and multi-unit firms, interior architects, landscape architects, and design and build firms. It works best for established firms doing at least $20,000 a month, with room to take on more projects.
Proof
Real searches and real positions, each screenshot cropped to the result it proves. A design and build firm first, then design-led businesses whose clients search the same way.
Angkorscape designs and builds high-end outdoor spaces. Its clients are the same people who hire an architect: homeowners with a serious budget and a long decision. Five searches those clients type on Google, and where Angkorscape ranks for each one now.
Read the Angkorscape case study.
For “outdoor living spaces contractors in Seattle”, Google writes its own short list of firms above the normal results. Angkorscape is on it, described as “a design-build firm”. That list draws on the same work as the rankings: the website, the listing and the sites that mention the firm.
More on how this works: getting named in Google’s AI answers.
Businesses that sell a designed, built or furnished space, ranked on the searches their clients type. Each card names the exact search.
Google search
Covers in Play
for “Pool Enclosure Designs”
Before
#100
Now
#2
Number 2 of the unpaid results, on page one.
Google search · Trenton
Covers in Play
for “Swimming Pool Enclosure in Trenton”
Before
Not in top 100
Now
#1
The first unpaid result for the exact search.
Google Maps
Candace & Basil
for “luxury furniture stores”
Before
#10
Now
#1
Top of the Maps list, below any ads.
Google Maps
Candace & Basil
for “luxury dining tables”
Before
#12
Now
#2
Number 2 in the Maps list, competitors and all.
Google search · Hillsboro
Super Fabrications
for “fence builder hillsboro”
Now
#1
The first unpaid result for the exact search.
Google search
Xizmo Media
for “Drone Cinematography for Commercials”
Now
#1
The first unpaid result for the exact search.
Businesses that design, build or film homes and outdoor spaces, ranked for the project searches their clients type. Every card shows the search and the position.
Google search
Xizmo Media
for “Aerial Video Production”
Now
#1
The first unpaid result for the exact search.
Google Maps
Mae Fence Company
for “cedar fence installation Fulton”
Before
Not shown
Now
#1
Top of the Maps list, below any ads.
Google Maps
Mae Fence Company (Cleveland)
for “cedar fence installation Cleveland”
Before
#15
Now
#3
Number 3 in the Maps list, competitors and all.
Google search
Covers in Play
for “Retractable Pool Enclosure Attached to House”
Before
#16
Now
#4
Number 4 of the unpaid results, on page one.
Google search
Sunly Energy
for “Residential Solar Panel Installation”
Now
#2
Number 2 of the unpaid results, on page one.
Google search
Xizmo Media
for “Drone Video Production”
Now
#2
Number 2 of the unpaid results, on page one.
Google search
Sunly Energy
for “Residential solar companies”
Now
#2
Number 2 of the unpaid results, on page one.
Google search · Arizona
Covers in Play
for “Pool Enclosures Arizona”
Now
#3
Number 3 of the unpaid results, on page one.
Businesses that win on the Maps list, where “architect near me” clients choose. Each card names the exact search.
Google Maps
Mae Fence Company
for “cedar fencing company”
Before
Not shown
Now
#1
Top of the Maps list, below any ads.
Google Maps
Boise Diamond Ring & Coin
for “luxury watch buyers”
Before
Not shown
Now
#2
Number 2 in the Maps list, competitors and all.
Google Maps · Asheville, North Carolina
Asheville Area Movers
for “local movers”
Every point
1st or 2nd
Each green dot is one spot on the map where the search was run. On the August 2023 grid, every dot shows them first or second.
Google Maps
Law Offices of Jason M. Ranallo
for “car accident attorneys near me”
Before
#10
Now
#1
Top of the Maps list, below any ads.
When someone reads Google’s AI answer or asks ChatGPT for a business like theirs, these clients are named or cited as a source.
Google AI Overview · Toronto
Everything Mortgages
for “Mortgage Refinancing for Renovations Toronto”
Now
Cited
Linked as a source inside Google’s written answer.
Google AI Mode
Super Fabrications
for “fence company chantilly”
Now
Cited
The first source listed beside the AI Mode answer.
Google AI Overview
B Generous
for “Bridge Loans for NonProfits”
Now
Cited
Linked as one of the sources beside Google’s written answer.
ChatGPT
Modernistic
for “Best carpet cleaning company in Michigan”
ChatGPT’s answer opens with one “Recommended Company”: Modernistic.
What we do
We work on the three places clients look: Google Maps, the normal Google results and AI answers in ChatGPT and Google. Start with Google Maps or the normal Google results, or run both, and AI answers are included either way. We weight the work toward the kinds of project you want more of.
Example listing
★★★★★ · Architect · Open now
Example project page title
Two-storey rear addition for a 1920s home in [neighbourhood]
The brief, the permit route, the build time and 14 photos named for what they show.
“Which architects near me design modern custom homes?”
A few firms with strong residential work nearby: Your Architecture Studio …
How clients search
Clients type the kind of project, add “near me” or their town, and pick from what Google shows first. These are the numbers we plan SEO for architects around.
18,100
Searches a month for “architect near me” in the USA
And 1,900 a month in Canada. The biggest architect search we measured, and Google answers it with the Maps list first.
$27.75
One ad click for “commercial architect” in the USA
Google Ads’ own estimate. A top Maps listing or a first-page result doesn’t charge by the click.
9,900
Searches a month for “architecture firms near me” in the USA
And 1,300 in Canada. People comparing firms, not just looking for one name.
USA. From 14,800 searches in the quietest month to 27,100 at the peak.
USA. From 590 searches in the quietest month to 12,100 at the peak.
Google Ads search estimates for the whole country, pulled October 2026. Each chart is scaled to its own peak.
| Search | USA | Canada |
|---|---|---|
| Finding an architect | ||
| architect near me | 18,100 | 1,900 |
| architecture firms near me | 9,900 | 1,300 |
| residential architect near me | 1,000 | 20 |
| By kind of project | ||
| custom home architect | 2,400 | 90 |
| home addition architect | 1,000 | 40 |
| commercial architect | 3,600 | 260 |
| interior architect | 6,600 | 390 |
| landscape architect near me | 3,600 | 170 |
| Plans and design | ||
| architect for house plans | 1,900 | 110 |
| architectural design services | 720 | 90 |
Monthly searches, average over a year. Google Ads estimates for the whole country, pulled October 2026. A dash means we didn’t measure that search there.
The best keywords are the ones your next client types, matched to the work you want. These are the ones we usually start with, and the page that wins each.
Because a project needs someone who can visit the site and knows the local approval rules. “Architect near me” is searched 18,100 times a month in the USA, and Google answers it with the Maps list first. A firm that isn’t in the top three on that map for its own area misses the biggest architect search there is.
Both. Someone with a project in mind searches the project: “custom home architect” gets 2,400 searches a month in the USA, “home addition architect” 1,000. Someone who already knows your name will find you anyway; the project searches are where you meet clients who don’t.
The searches are the same and the numbers are smaller. “Architect near me” gets 1,900 searches a month in Canada and “architecture firms near me” 1,300, so each town page and the Maps listing carry more of the weight.
They move. “Architect near me” in the USA went between 14,800 and 27,100 searches a month over the last year, and “custom home architect” between 590 and 12,100. We get your project pages ranking ahead of the busy months, not during them.
By kind of practice
Each kind of work is its own search, with its own clients and its own competitors. This is how we handle the ones firms ask us about most, and the numbers behind them.
Homeowners, near home
“Residential architect near me” gets 1,000 searches a month in the USA. Homeowners want to see homes like theirs, in areas like theirs. A residential page with your process, how fees work and finished homes nearby, plus a strong Maps listing, wins these.
High value, long decision
“Custom home architect” gets 2,400 searches a month in the USA, and one ad click for it is estimated at $12.35. These clients read for months before they hire. The page that wins explains the stages from brief to build, what drives the cost and who does the design, with full project pages behind it.
Older homes, tight lots
“Home addition architect” gets 1,000 searches a month in the USA. Owners want to know about permits, setbacks and living through the work. Before-and-after project pages for each kind of addition answer that.
Specialist work, found by the few who need it
Owners of designated or older buildings search for the rules as much as the firm. Pages that explain the approvals in your area and show work you have done on old buildings reach them. Specialist trades can move fast: Maurice & Sons, a log home restoration company, went from outside Google’s top 100 to seven #1 rankings in 21 days (case study).
Bigger projects, costly clicks
“Commercial architect” gets 3,600 searches a month in the USA and 260 in Canada, at an estimated $27.75 for one ad click. Commercial clients look for a firm that has done their kind of building, so each sector (offices, retail, restaurants, healthcare) gets its own page and project list.
Developers and builders
Developers search by building type and by the approvals they need. Pages for each type you design, with unit counts, sizes and the approvals you have taken projects through, show you understand their numbers and their timelines.
Chosen on photos
“Interior architect” gets 6,600 searches a month in the USA and 390 in Canada. Clients pick on the rooms they can see, so the page carries strong photos of finished work, described in words so Google can read them too.
Outdoor projects, high budgets
“Landscape architect near me” gets 3,600 searches a month in the USA. This is where our strongest design result sits: Angkorscape, a design and build firm in Seattle, is #1 for “luxury landscape design” (case study).
Cost
Google Maps starts at $1,497 a month. Google rankings start at $2,697 a month. Both go up for multiple locations, multiple websites and complexity. See how our SEO pricing works.
SEO plans for architects
Google Maps
$1,497+
Google rankings
$2,697+
a month. Higher for multiple locations, websites and complexity. AI answers come with every plan. No long-term contracts.
More offices, more websites and a bigger or more complex site take more work. A firm with studios in two cities counts as multiple locations, and every extra project type and town page adds work.
Google answers “architect near me” and town searches with the Maps list first, so a firm that wins its work locally usually starts there. Custom homes and commercial work are researched on websites, which is where the Google rankings plan works. Some firms start with one and add the other once it moves.
They are paid differently. Ads charge for every click, and a “commercial architect” click is estimated at $27.75 in the USA. SEO is a monthly fee for the work on the listing and the results below the ads, where nobody pays per click. You can run both.
The work on your Google Maps listing, new project-type, project and town pages, fixes to your site, mentions and links on other sites, and getting named in AI answers.
Architecture and design firms already doing at least $20,000 a month. Below that, there is usually not enough coming in yet for rankings to change much.
Timing
Fixes to your listing and website usually show first, because Google only has to look again. New project and town pages take weeks, and trust built across the web takes longer.
Listing and site fixes
Usually first
Wrong categories, missing services, slow photo-heavy pages and pages Google can’t read tend to show soonest, once Google looks again.
Project-type pages
Weeks
New pages for custom homes, additions, commercial work and the rest need Google to find them and test them against the firms already ranking.
Project and town pages
Weeks to months
Each area is its own competition. A big city with more firms competing takes longer than the towns around it.
Mentions, links and AI answers
Longer
Trust built across the web adds up month after month, and it keeps working after it is in place.
An illustration of the usual order, not a schedule. Your area and your competitors set the pace.
How strong the competition is in your area, how long your listing and site have been around, how many kinds of project and towns you want. A firm in a smaller town usually moves faster than one taking on a whole city.
Clients search less often for an architect than for a plumber, so there are fewer searches to win and each one matters more. And a site that is mostly photos gives Google little to read until the project pages are written.
We look at your listing, your site and the firms ahead of you, then fix the listing and the site problems first. The first project-type and town pages go up after that. You can check every ranking yourself, and we show you each change as it is made.
Yes, two. They are set out word for word in our SEO guarantees, with what counts and what happens if we miss.
Page one in 60 days, or we work free.
Guarantee 01
20days
If you don’t see visible improvement in your key metrics within the first 20 days, we refund $200 on top of returning your payment for that period.
What we measure: your traffic, what that traffic is worth, how much authority your site and its pages carry, and how many other sites link to you, against the day we start.
Guarantee 02
60days
If your qualifying keywords aren’t on the first page of Google within 60 days, we keep working for free until they are.
What counts: at least one high-value search for your business on page one of Google.
No long-term contracts. Results keep you here. Paperwork doesn't.
Before you sign
The questions to ask any SEO company before you sign, and our answers.
Before you sign, ask for
Awkward Media
A live result for a design firm
✓
A page plan for each kind of project
✓
Project pages, not just a gallery
✓
A written guarantee
✓
No long-term contract
✓
A monthly price in writing
✓
AI answers included
✓
Ask for the exact search and a live result, not a chart. Ours: Angkorscape, a design and build firm in Seattle, #1 for “luxury landscape design” and named in Google’s AI answer. The whole story is in the Angkorscape case study.
Ask which pages they would build first and why. If the answer is one “services” page listing everything, custom home and commercial clients will land on a competitor’s page that answers their questions.
Ask what they would do with your project gallery. Photos alone rank for almost nothing. Each strong project needs words: what it is, where, the brief and the result.
A good company puts its promise in writing. Ours are in our SEO guarantees.
Be careful with a 12-month lock-in before anything has moved. We have no long-term contracts.
Get a monthly price and a list of the work in writing. Ours are in the cost section above, and AI answers come with every plan.
A page for house plans when you only take full design projects wins searches you don’t want. Tell them the kinds of project you want more of, the ones you turn down and the areas you work in, and check the plan follows that list.
Your Google Maps listing and your website belong to your firm. Whoever you hire should be added as a manager, not take over as the owner, so nothing is lost if you ever part ways.
Ask who you deal with week to week and how fast they reply. With us, your account manager answers in plain words and changes you ask for go live quickly, so a new project or a new hire isn’t stuck waiting for a meeting.
SEO terms
The words you’ll hear from any SEO company, and what each one means for an architecture firm.
Questions
What architecture firms ask us before they start.
Book my free strategy callIt gets your firm found when people search for an architect or a kind of project: on Google Maps, in the normal results and in AI answers. That means setting up your Google listing, writing a page for each kind of work and each area, turning your portfolio into pages Google can read, fixing what holds your website back, and getting your firm named on sites Google trusts.
Referrals, a portfolio that shows the work you want more of, and being easy to find when someone searches. Referrals send people to Google to check you out, and a search with no referral sends them to whoever shows up first, so the search side backs up everything else you do. Awards, published projects and talks help too, because each one is a mention Google can read.
AI tools can help draft a first version of a page or a project write-up, and that saves time. They can’t tell you which searches bring the clients you want, set up your listing, fix your website or earn mentions on other sites. Pages that read like everyone else’s also give Google no reason to pick yours, so every page we publish is checked against your real projects and your real details.
That search is won close to the person searching, so we build your Google listing, your location pages and your firm’s details across the towns you take work in. Google also weighs how well your pages match what was searched and how often trusted sites mention you.
Yes, if the firm is already doing at least $20,000 a month. Below that, there usually isn’t enough trade behind the work for the new enquiries to land. A small studio often does best by picking one or two kinds of project and one area, and owning those first.
Yes. Each office needs its own Google Business Profile, its own location page with real details, and its own reviews. We plan the firm as a whole so your offices don’t compete with each other for the same searches.
They’re one of the things Google weighs, and something a client reads before they call. Google also weighs how close you are to the person searching, how well your listing and pages match what they searched for, and how often trusted sites mention and link to you. We set up a simple routine for asking past clients for a review, and work on everything else at the same time.
Yes, it’s part of every plan at no extra cost. Clear service pages, named principals and matching firm details everywhere are what these tools quote. In Seattle, Google’s AI answer for outdoor living contractors names Angkorscape as a design-build firm.
Yes. A write-up in a design magazine, an award listing or a talk at an industry event is usually a link and a mention of your firm on a site Google trusts. We make sure each one points to the right page on your site and names your firm the same way every time.
We do, from your drawings, photos and notes. Someone at your firm reads each page before it goes up, so every claim about a project is one you stand behind.
Yes. You can start with the one or two kinds of work you want the most of. We build those pages and the searches around them first, then widen to the rest of what you do.
Yes. People hire architects as much as firms, and they often search a principal’s name before they call. A page for each principal, with their background and their projects, gives Google and AI answers something clear to show for that name.
Because Google Maps changes with where the person searching is standing. A client across town sees a different order from the one you see in the studio, which is why we check your position across the areas you serve, not from one spot.
You see your positions for each kind of project and each area against the day we started, with screenshots of the real Google screen. You can check every ranking on Google yourself, and your account manager answers any question fast, in plain words.
It’s the part of SEO that wins searches with a place in them: “architect near me”, or a kind of architect plus your town. It runs on your Google listing, your location pages and your firm’s name across local sites. More on local SEO services.
Yes. We start by checking what was done and what’s holding you back, with a full SEO audit, and keep what works. You own your website, listing and content the whole time.
Not to start. We fix what holds your current site back first, and tell you plainly if something needs rebuilding. Design-led sites are often slow because of large images, and that’s usually fixable without a redesign.
No. Nobody controls the order Google shows. What we put in writing is page one, set out word for word in our SEO guarantees.
Yes. We work with businesses across both countries. See our cities for the areas we cover.
Yes. See construction SEO, landscaping SEO and roofing SEO.
Where we work
We work with design firms and other businesses across the United States and Canada. Pick your city to see how we plan SEO there, or read on through the services behind SEO for architects.
All of them on our industries page.
SEO for architects draws on all of these. These pages cover the rest of the work, from the words on your pages to being named in AI answers.
Read how the work went for businesses like yours, from the first month to the result.
Plain-English reading before you hire anyone.
Every city we cover is on our locations page. Working across the whole country? See our SEO agency for the USA.
As seen in and rated on
Your next step
On a 30 minute call we look up the searches your next clients type, show you who ranks for them today, and what it would take to get your firm there.
Bring with you
We search your market live
The way your customers do, in the towns you serve.
We show who's above you, and why
On Google, on Maps and in the AI answers.
You leave with a road map
Yours to keep. If we can help, we'll invite you to work with us.
For established businesses doing at least $20,000 a month.
